HTMl tel links (phone links)

virtually 100% of my students access their courses on their phones for most activities except completing assignments. There is no reason tel links should be wiped from pages, syllabi, assignments, etc. . . If they look at the syllabus to find the tech support number, they should be able to just click the link and make the call. Even desktop computers now often have a method for contacting a phone number.

Smartphones have been round for a few years now, so this wiping is obviously very old. It definitely needs to be updated for say. . . 2011 (It's currently 2017).

I'll admit, on the surface this idea seems pretty simple and straightforward, but then I started asking 'Is he talking about mobile app, or native mobile browsers?' 'Is this happening on all smartphone platforms or just one/some?' 'We don't support mobile browsers, so is this something that would be acceptable in the mobile app only?' ...

So now that I took you through the surface of my brain dive, what are your experiences/thoughts on this?

It's an HTML standard for links, like a mailto: link that automatically opens an email program to send an email. Because it's a standard, it's not just mobile devices anymore. Many desktop computers can make a phone call, or pass the call to a mobile device.

Also, there is a quest called "Playlist: It's a Mobile World", which is all about learning how to make your assignments mobile-friendly. Which really just goes to show that even if Canvas continues to ignore mobile devices, students will still use them. I use ONLY an iPad for teaching, so I use a mobile device all the time with Canvas.

NOT wiping the tel: links just makes sense and wiping doesn't provide any sort of protection against malicious content. Since it's not a specifically MOBILE standard, but an HTML standard, I think it should be allowed and not wiped.

In other words, it's an ACTIVE removal of something by Canvas that doesn't need to be removed.